United States Marriages

Were your ancestors married in the United States? In this collection spanning from the 17th century to the 20th century, discover where and when your ancestor was married. You may be able to uncover the couple’s ages, birth years, and parents’ names.

Learn about these records

This collection contains all the United States marriage records that are currently on Findmypast. The records date from the 17th century to the 20th century. Records will continue to be added to this collection as they are obtained. There are both images and transcripts in this collection; however, some records only provide a transcript. Various marriage record types are included: applications, licenses, certificates, intentions to marry, registers, bonds, and affidavits. Based on the type of record and where it was created, the amount of available information will vary. There is also a small collection of banns records included. Please note that banns records do not prove that the marriage actually took place.

Most transcripts will provide the following details:

Full name

Sex

Marital status

Age

Birth year

Father’s full name

Mother’s full name

Marriage year

Spouse’s full name

Spouse’s sex

Spouse’s marital status

Spouse’s age

Spouse’s birth year

Spouse’s father’s full name

Spouse’s mother’s full name

Place

County

Please note that some individuals will appear multiple times in the results. This is due to the fact that occasionally several different authorities would record a marriage, which resulted in multiple records for an individual’s marriage. These records, however, are not duplicates, strictly speaking; each record may contain slightly different information.

Additionally, you can use the place field search to search by any place mentioned in a transcript, including places of birth where recorded. Searching using the state or county fields will search only marriage locations.

When available, images will often include additional details about your ancestor’s marriage.

We have found 12 United States presidents in these records: Andrew Jackson, James K Polk, Rutherford B Hayes, James A Garfield, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Warren G Harding, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.

Andrew Jackson - The son of Scots-Irish parents recently immigrated to the Carolinas, Andrew Jackson would grow up to become the seventh president of the United States, holding office for two terms from 1829 to 1837.

Jackson’s marriage to Rachel Donelson Robards was tainted with scandal when it came to light only a few years after marrying her that her divorce from her first marriage was not finalized. This meant that her marriage to Jackson was bigamous. As bigamy is illegal in the United States, the two were required to remarry once her divorce came through. The two were remarried in 1794, which is the marriage record you can view in this collection.

The scandal surrounding his marriage, unfortunately, followed the couple throughout their lives. Jackson responded strongly to any slight made against his wife’s honor, to the point where he challenged Charles Dickinson, the author of an attack against Jackson in a local newspaper, to a duel, where he shot and killed him. The presidential election of 1828 was a great strain on Rachel, who died of a heart attack two weeks after Jackson won. Jackson held John Quincy Adams accountable for her death due to his continuous attacks during the campaign regarding their marriage.

Ronald Reagan - Reagan is the only U.S. president to have ever been divorced. Both of his wives were actresses. On meeting his second wife, Nancy, who would become the First Lady, Reagan said, “I don’t know if it was exactly love at first sight, but it was pretty close.” From his marriage certificate, we learn that he was 41 years old to Nancy’s 28. His parents were John Edward Reagan and Nelle Wilson, both born in Illinois. Nancy’s parents were Loyal Davis, born in Illinois, and Edith Luckett, born in Virginia. Nancy herself was born in New York and was living in West Los Angeles as the time of her marriage to Reagan.

In these records, you may also discover famous writers, orators, and actors, whose legacies are still felt to this day. Notably, you can find W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Clark Gable, Joan Fontaine, and Ginger Rogers in these marriage records, to name a few.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, known for such poems as Christmas Bells, married his second wife, Frances Elizabeth Appleton, on 13 June 1843. Longfellow was devoted to Frances and courted her for 7 years before gaining her hand in marriage. Tragically, Frances suffered a sudden, untimely death, of which Longfellow never truly recovered. After her death, Longfellow penned the sonnet The Evening Star, in which he compares Frances to the evening star (Hesperus in Greek mythology): “O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus! / My morning and my evening star of love! / My best and gentlest lady! even thus, / As that fair planet in the sky above, / Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night, / And from they darkened window fades the light.”

In the marriage register, we can additionally note that Longfellow was a professor and Frances was from Boston. The couple had six children together.

Clark Gable - “The King of Hollywood,” adored for his roles in such films as Gone with the Wind and It Happened One Night, was married five times; his first and second marriages have been found in these records. He married Josephine Dillon on 13 December 1924 and Maria Langham on 19 June 1931. Josephine was initially Gable’s acting coach and patron. When they married in 1924, they both lied regarding their ages; Josephine took six years off her age, claiming to be 34, and Gable added a year to his, claiming to be 24.

Search tips

Begin your search as broadly as you can. Occasionally, years and names were mistranscribed, which means you may miss your ancestor if you include too many specific details in your search. Start with just your ancestor's name.

Where possible, check all details in the transcript against what is detailed on the provided image of the original record.